Say this much for San Diego Padres center fielder Jackson Merrill. When he snaps a slump, he doesn’t do it with a bloop single off the end of the bat.
The player who was 3-for-35 in July entering play Saturday hit two homers off National League Cy Young Award candidate Zack Wheeler to propel his team to a 5-4 win over the visiting Philadelphia Phillies.
Merrill and San Diego will aim for a series sweep Sunday afternoon in the final game before the All-Star break.
Merrill’s average plummeted to .258 after an 0-for-3 in Friday night’s 4-2 win. Padres manager Mike Shildt had dropped him from second to fourth in the order, then to fifth and finally to sixth, to take a little pressure off a hitter clearly pressing.
A two-run, opposite-field homer in the second inning off Wheeler lit up Merrill’s face as he rounded the bases. A 402-foot solo shot over the right-center-field wall in the sixth tied the game and reinforced the notion Merrill had found the stroke that led to 24 homers last year as a rookie.
Some felt Merrill should take a game off for a mental break. He didn’t like that idea.
“A break? I don’t want a break,” he told MLB.com before the game on Saturday. “I never want a break. Especially right now. I’d rather just keep playing.”
Shildt has had no issue using Merrill despite his offensive woes. Merrill has played excellent defense, twice robbing home runs during his slump. One of them was in a 1-0 win Tuesday night over the Arizona Diamondbacks, preserving Nick Pivetta’s scoreless outing.
Pivetta (9-2, 3.07 ERA) will go back out there Sunday, looking to beat his former team for the second time in 11 days. The right-hander scored a 6-4 win at Philadelphia on July 2, scattering seven hits and allowing a run in six innings with no walks and six strikeouts.
Pivetta is 1-1 with a 5.79 ERA in three career appearances against the Phillies.
The Phillies will counter on Sunday with left-hander Cristopher Sanchez (7-2, 2.59), who followed Pivetta’s July 2 gem with one of his own in the night portion of a day-night twinbill. He gave up just one run over seven innings during a 5-1 win over the Padres, striking out five.
Sanchez is 2-1 with a 2.37 ERA in three lifetime outings against the Padres. He is one of three Philadelphia starters who could have been All-Stars this year, along with Wheeler and Ranger Suarez. Wheeler was selected but opted to prioritize rest over a trip to Atlanta for Tuesday’s game, and Sanchez was eliminated from consideration as a replacement because he’s pitching on Sunday.
Many Phillies were furious that two of their starters, the core of the top rotation in baseball this year, were left out while Milwaukee rookie Jacob Misiorowski was named an All-Star on Friday after pitching just 25 2/3 innings in five MLB starts.
“It’s turning into the Savannah Bananas,” Philadelphia right fielder Nick Castellanos said of the independent pro team known for its zany brand of baseball.
Philadelphia has other worries besides feeling shorted in terms of All-Star selections. The Phillies are 1-4 with one game remaining on their western swing through San Francisco and San Diego and are a half-game behind the New York Mets for first place in the NL East.
The Phillies also lost third baseman Alec Bohm in the fourth inning Saturday to a rib cage contusion after he took a Yu Darvish fastball to lead off the second. Bohm’s status for the Sunday series finale isn’t known.
–Field Level Media
